xiv A\ 100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



much of import has been accomplished here, by so many leading biologists 

 from all over the country. Yet the MBL is not officially that. It is not funded 

 by the government, nor does it have direct governmental connections. It is 

 an independent research and teaching laboratory, owned and governed by 

 its scientists, and it has been so since the early years. The MBL welcomes 

 biologists from all over the country and from many foreign countries; one 

 recent year brought representatives from over 325 American and nearly 75 

 foreign institutions. 



This rich diversity of scientists clearly goes beyond any self-conscious 

 sense of unique national identity or externally imposed purpose. Rather, the 

 MBL is a group of first-rate individual scientists, working in concert with 

 their own goals. These goals converge on producing the best biological 

 research possible, so that the underlying purpose is one of advancing 

 science. The MBL is a haven for science and as such serves as a special 

 resource, nationally and internationally. It is more a valuable treasure than 

 a national laboratory in the most familiar and limited sense. 



Yet what, exactly, is the Marine Biological Laboratory, and where did it 

 come from? It is mostly Marine. The majority of researchers still use marine 

 organisms. Some of these are not strictly local; a few could easily be flown 

 back to Idaho or Kansas and need not be studied on the spot; and a small 

 number of workers do not really even work with marine organisms. The 

 MBL has embraced a wider variety of life forms as the evolution of biological 

 work has carried researchers elsewhere. Yet the bulk of work at the MBL 

 remains marine and directed at marine-based research problems concern- 

 ing development, heredity, physiology, and evolution. 



The work is also largely Biological, though not exclusively. Chemistry 

 and physics creep in as they relate to biological questions. Historians have 

 begun to join the group of researchers, carrying out their own historical 

 research projects using the unique collection of resources available. After 

 the recent inaugural history course in connection with the MBL's centen- 

 nial, several of the students cancelled their vacation plans in order to stay 

 and do research in this surprisingly outstanding library. Occasional artists 

 arrive, and journalists, and sociologists, to carry out their own brand of 

 research, not in biology but about biology and biologists. Yet Biology remains 

 the central mission. 



As a Laboratory, the place also has evolved to embrace a wider range 

 of work centered on biological research. Some of the researchers at the 

 MBL actually use the librciry as their laboratory, a few even making the 

 mistake of never going outside to explore the variety of life there. Some take 

 the institution as their lab, looking over the shoulders of scientists to 

 investigate the process of doing science. But most still come to the MBL to 

 carry out their laboratory work in biology, experimenting on marine organ- 

 isms as they have for a full centuiy. In recent decades the MBL has become 



